Three customers have been warned after identities were “stolen” and the network failed to respond. Identity theft meant that a Vodafone customer was accused of owing money to Three, a rival network provider and mobile phone firm.
The customer wrote into the Guardian, warning: “A fraudulent phone contract has been taken out in my husband’s name and he is now threatened with court action. At the start of May he received a letter from a law firm stating he owed money for a Three phone contract. He explained that he’d never bought a phone from that company – he has been with Vodafone since 2001.
“When he started receiving letters about the contract – including one informing him that the debt had now been sold – he thought it was a scam. It was only when he got the legal letter he realised that he had been a victim of identity theft.
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“We asked the law firm for copies of the bills and the address the handset was sent to, but were told this information was not available. We also contacted Three customer services and Action Fraud.” The customer went on, fuming: “Since then, Three has not responded, and my husband has received notice he is going to be taken to court.
“Today he had a phone call with the court service and was told that, as Three had not responded, the case would continue.” In response to being approached by the newspaper, the provider said: “We apologise that our customer services did not meet our usual high standards on this occasion.
“We have logged the account as fraudulent, cancelled all payment requests and requested that the credit file is amended.” The customer raged: “We are caught in a nightmare of being pursued for a debt my husband does not owe, and being refused information about who did take out the contract.”